The Arizona sentinel., 1887-03-05

of Amazons follow composed of their wives and daughters, authorized by custom to pass in review with their fathers and husbands. When the Governor places himself in front of the troops the bands strike up God Save the Queen," the soldiers present arms, the officers make the military salute, and the spec tators, uncovered, remain silent and motionless. A battery placed 1,500 feet above their heads at the sum- init of the north side of the rock fires a salvo to which all of the interior batteries respond. After various evolutions the troops return to the city and deposit their arms in their barracks, when they are at liberty to spend the rest of the day as they please. The taverns are crowded, and the amount of brandy swallowed is incalculable. Incalculable also the number of
 "drunksn met with after dark on the streets. For these there are special provisions. Each of the posts in the city and on the rock is provided with a kind of sentry-box, and when red coat too much under the influence of drink passes in sight of one of these posts the officer or sub-officer calls two of his men, who lay hold of him with out violence and guide his staggering steps to the box where he is allowed to sleep off the fumes of his brandy until morning. The next day there are dis tributed some fines and sentences in the guard-house, and then every thing resumes its usual course. Brandy is the weakness of the English, and it greatly increases the mortality of the garrison. All that succumb die of the same disease, kind of cerebral fever that the English call rock fever, but that the natives correctly call brandy fever.
 Every thing on this rock partalzes of the military. One is awakened by the sound of cannon each morning as soon as the rising of the sun gives the signal for the opening of the great gate. The
 
 ing. These two firings of a gun are always regular, but they are not the only ones that are heard in the course of a day or night. for everything that happens out of the usual course, whether on the rock or around the rock, is signaled by cannon. This cannon, which became inevitably companion of the existence of every one living on the rock, is in battery at the summit of the rock about the middle of its length, at the foot of mast from which flies a signal flag that whenever the guni is frad- -talls- -luha4- it is fired for. The most frequently it is to warn the Spanish coast-guard out of English waters. Sometimes it is fire the signal indicates its location. Precautions are 80 well taken, and the pumps so eXpeditiousty handled, that a fire is very speedily extinguished. Sometimes it is the rock itself that burns. Though it is bare, so to speak, vegetation grows in the spring that is soon parched by the sun, for from April to November it never rains in Gibraltar. Once or twice during the summer this growth takes fire-probably through the carelessness of smokers. When this occurs the ex- citement is great, for the rock is scat tered over with powder magazines, and water in large quantities, except at the base of the rock, is hard to get. The entire garrison is sometimes employed in fighting these fires for forty-eight hours.
 Gibraltar, besides its garrison of 1000, has 15,0O0 inhabitants For a fortress of such small extent this population is embarrassing. The civilians are everywhere sacrificed to the military. In the village and on the rock the best places are occupied by barracks. Every thing that serve the needs of defense, the health and com fort of the troops, is admirably looked after. From top to bottom the rock is furrowed with excellent roads, and in the city the streets are marvellous ly cleaned and well kept The sewerage system is perfect. and gas and water abound everywhere. But the civil population is shut up in very restricted space, most of the houses are novels, whose existence is subject to the caprice of the military, for, above all, nothing must interfere with the firing of the batteries. Not new building has been constructed for twenty years, for all the available land | was built on long ago. These fifteen thousand inhabitants, born on the rock | and called by the English ''rock SCOT pions," are, according to law, subjects | of the British Government, as born on English soil. They have the right to | live where they were born. No one can expel them, but everything is done | to letter the development of the civil | and, above all, to prevent | the formation of q foreign colony. A foreigner can enter Gibraltar only with a permit valid for twenty-four hours. At the holders request it may be ex- tended three days, and he can not remain longer than that time without reliable guarantor known to the military authorities. With such a guarantor his permit may be renewed every three months, the |